John Cena Returns to RAW After Brutal Shoulder Surgery, Gets New Rival

You know how the WWE has been rolling out a lot of exciting new names? How Kevin Owens has been getting prominent placement on both the weekly programs? And how Sami Zayn has been looking great since getting called up from NXT? And how Baron Corbin, Apollo Crews and the Vaudevillains have all been getting steady work?

WELL GUESS WHO IS HERE TO FIX THAT?!?!

“Somebody’s threatening to take my spot at the top of the company? Better have them buried.” –John Cena, Photo by WWE.Com

That’s right! After a month and a half of teasing, John Cena returned to the WWE on yesterday’s Monday Night RAW. The Face That Runs the Place suddenly disappeared from WWE programming in January, which was later revealed to be the result of a shoulder injury sustained during a feud with Alberto Del Rio. The injury would require surgery with a nine-month estimated recovery time.

As per usual, however, Cena recovered ahead of schedule and will apparently jump right back into a prominent match with a hot name. That name is AJ Styles.

After a babyface homecoming where he thanked the fans and talked about the importance of Memorial Day, he discussed the silly “new era” tagline that the McMahons have been throwing around and how any newcomers need to step over him if they want to reach the top. Styles came out and put Cena over on the microphone, which was followed by Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows joining him on the ramp. While it briefly seemed like this would lead to a standard issue impromptu tag match, Styles sucker-punched Cena to initiate a big ol’ beatdown.

This probably won’t end well for Gallows, Anderson and Styles. Screengrab by @WWEUniverse.

It’s not official yet, but we’re almost certainly going to get a Styles vs. Cena match at Money in the Bank in three weeks. Unfortunately, as we saw with Kevin Owens and Rusev last year…that’s definitely not going to end well for him.